Deap Vally

Since missing out on these feisty pair of femme fatales at Nottingham’s Dot to Dot festival they’ve enjoyed some success due to their heavy garage/blues rock and the fact that they don’t tend to wear that many clothes on stage. I was more interested in their music, naturally…

Date: November 4, 2013

Venue: Rock City Basement

Girl Power. An insipid term bandied around in the mid 90s. It’s message struck a chord with teenage girls and the phenomenon of The Spice Girls was born. But where was the power exactly? Did Baby Spice ever wear skin-tight denim shorts and a revealing bra top and spit enraged tales of a woman scorned via a grimy fuzzy clatter? Did Posh ever throttle a guitar and rally against her daddy with the howl of a rabid T-Rex? No, they didn’t. Theirs was an empty motto, a manufactured slogan for a manufactured band. This, on the other hand, this is hardcore.

Deap Vally have major girl power. They’re like Thelma and Louise wired to the National Grid; they’re L7 grappling with Courtney Love; they’re Peaches in riot grrrl mode. They are a duo who create a massive noise.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, goes the adage. Apply scuzzy, filthy guitars and incendiary drumming to that phrase, and you’ve pretty much summed up Deap Vally.

In Rock City’s basement, they claw at their subjects: abandon, love, hate, envy and angst. Lindsey Troy (guitar, vocals) carries the weight, her Californian scowls abrasive, her guitar discordant, screeching and played as if her life depends on it. Behind her is Julie Edwards (drums) who’s like Meg White on a diet of Ritalin.

Singles ‘Gonna Make My Own Money’ and ‘End Of the World’ throb with vitriol and venom, Troy’s grizzly larynx giving the songs an AC/DC-esque shrill.

With an album stuffed full of heavy garage/blues rock, it’s no surprise that the majority of that record is played, and if one critical point needs to be made, it’s aimed at their lack of diversity. But whoever shot AC/DC down for that?

Remember: they’re not Deep Valley – no, they’ve even twisted their name to annoy sub editors. The are Deap Vally, and they are loud, proud and girls aloud to behave badly.